


So Happy I Could Die

by itsactuallycorrine



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: Baby!Fic, Drabbles, F/M, Tumblr Prompts, episode resolution, future!fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-11
Updated: 2013-12-04
Packaged: 2017-12-08 05:25:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/757575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsactuallycorrine/pseuds/itsactuallycorrine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles I wrote from prompts sent to me on Tumblr (username's the same there; come leave me some prompts or just say hi!). Some are current timeline and some are future!fic. Not sure yet if they all take place in the same universe...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Guilt Orchids : a resolution to S01E20 "Pretty Man"

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own these characters or The Mindy Project. Please don't sue me, Mindy Kaling or Fox.

**Prompt: Write a resolution to the fight from the last episode, please!!!! (S01E20 "Pretty Man")**

There’s a beautiful, blooming orchid on her desk when she walks into her office Monday.

Mindy feels herself start to soften and touches the waxy petal for a split second before she remembers how mean he was and how horrible that party was and how she is still kind of right, damn it. So she steels herself and knocks the plant - pot and all - into the garbage.

She hears him groan from across the office and allows herself a small, smug smile.

The orchid’s back in place when she returns from seeing a patient and she doesn’t have it in her to throw it away again. Instead she decides to take the mature approach. “Betsy!”

“Yes, Dr. Lahiri?” Betsy replies, coming to the office door.

“I would like to donate this vegetation to the elderly. Or terminally ill. Or whoever you give plants to. Just take it somewhere else.”

Betsy looks confused but dutifully picks it up and leaves the room. Mindy has a moment to bask in the triumph before a certain sweaty OB marches through the door.

“Are you crazy?!” he splutters. “Do you know how much that cost me? In April? In Manhattan?”

“Danny, don’t be tacky,” Mindy says, sliding her glasses off her face and striving to stay cool. “It was my guilt-flower to do with what I wanted.”

“It wasn’t a guilt-flower. I have nothing to be guilty about! You wrecked my party, you told Alex about my ex-wife, you-“

“And yet,” she says, standing and leaning across the desk, “you are the one leaving flowers for me.”

Danny visibly recollects himself and nods. “Yeah,” he concedes slowly. “Yeah, you’re right. But it wasn’t out of guilt. It was an apology. For saying I didn’t ask to be your friend.”

Mindy straightens. “Well, maybe you kind of have a point.” She ignores his incredulous maybe?! and presses on. “I shouldn’t have said anything to Alex about your ex and I shouldn’t have invited everyone in the office to your party and I definitely shouldn’t have brought Adam-the-prostitute.”

“Or laid on my piano,” he says with a crooked grin.

Fighting a smile, Mindy whines, “Oh, come on. How hot was that?! You gotta learn to let go, man.”

Danny chuckles. “You know, if there’s one thing I gotta say, it’s that life around you is never boring.” He sobers a little bit, but a hint of smile is still playing around his mouth. “And I don’t hate being your friend.”

“Aw, Danny.” Mindy blinks hard, then holds her arms out, making grabby hands at him. “Bring it in. This deserves a hug.”

He looks at her for a long second, like he’s considering it and the impact it might have on his tough-guy cred, then turns away. “Nah, I’m good.”

Mindy hugs him anyway.

He doesn’t totally hate that either.


	2. Unabashedly Fluffy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Mindy & Danny arguing over baby names

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *with a bonus The Office reference or two for those who are into that*

He knew going in that his relationship with Mindy was never going to be smooth sailing, Danny reflected in exasperation, but for the most part it was a fun kind of struggle. It kept their marriage fresh, that little push-pull chemistry that had once made them enemies and then lovers.

Today “fun” was not the word he’d use to describe their relationship.

“I just don’t see the problem,” he says, putting away the three dozen onesies (not an exaggeration) they were given at the baby shower.

“Danny, you have got to be joking.” Mindy rests one hand on her enormously swollen stomach and another at the small of her back. She’s almost eight months and Danny puffs up with pride every time she winces at the weight of _his kid_ on her frame. “Do you know how bad our daughter is going to be teased if we name her Fulvia?! I can think of three - no, make that four - female-anatomy-related jokes off the top of my head!”

“It was my maternal grandmother’s name!” He gestures emphatically, accidentally knocking over a stack of baby clothes then swearing under his breath. “I just like the tradition of using family names. If you don’t want to use my family’s names, fine, use one of yours.”

Mindy rolls her eyes. “Danny, do you know what my maternal grandmother’s name is? Rajnigandha. Do you really wanna go there? How about something hip, like Beyonce or Nicki or Mariah or-”

Pointing a finger at her, he says, “Stop! No pop stars! You agreed to that months ago.”

Suddenly, Mindy doubles over as much as she can, clutching her stomach, “Omigod, Danny. Danny! Danny, I think I’m going into labor. It’s hurts so bad, babe.”

He rolls his eyes. “Okay, one, you can’t keep doing that. You’re not going to get your way in every argument by claiming you’re going into labor. Two, what’re you gonna do when it really is time and I don’t believe you?”

Pouting, she straightens. “It could’ve been real this time.”

“Min, you’ve been around a lot of pregnant women. You should know how to fake it realistically by now.” He walks over, smirking, and flips his thumb over her bottom lip that’s sticking out slightly. “It’s like you’re not even trying.”

She narrows her eyes and nips at the pad of his thumb playfully. “Hey, you totally bought it the first half dozen times, buddy.”

“What can I say?” he murmurs, slipping a hand behind her neck and pulling her in for a gentle kiss. “I’m a sucker for my pregnant wife.”

She hums into his kiss for a few minutes, then pulls back slowly. “Danny, I’ve got it: how about Kathleen?”

He looks at her with suspicion. “I like it,” he admits. “Do I wanna know why you chose it?”

She grins and pulls him back in for a more vigorous kiss. “It’s probably for the best that you don’t.”


	3. The One Where Mindy Has a Baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two Prompts: Mindy giving birth and Danny freaking out AND Mindy/Danny together but Danny is jealous when someone mentions when Mindy was with Jeremy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Man, you guys really like the baby!fic) (I do too)

There are worse places to go into labor than in an OB/GYN’s office, Mindy reflects. Cabs, the subway, the zoo - she’d heard a lot of really bizarre stories from very paranoid expectant mothers who had too much time to search the internet.

However, going into labor in an OB/GYN’s office is not quite the desired outcome when you _are_ the OB/GYN.

“How could you not know you’re in labor?!” Danny asks, arms in the air, hair mussed. His skin looks clammy; he’d gone into the insta-flopsweat phase as soon as Mindy had quietly pulled him aside and let him in on the secret.

Mindy shifts a little in discomfort, reluctant to tell him the truth: she _had_ known she was in labor. But she was also booked solid - business had been booming since the guys had given in on her newest advertising initiative. And she had thought she’d have more time; first children usually do take longer.

Oh, and there was the little fact that she was _terrified_. Mindy loved being pregnant, but the end game in this whole thing was being a mother to a little helpless human who would depend on her for everything. Which, yeah, she understood in theory, but theory and application are two very different things.

So when she started to have contractions, she’d hid them as best she could. And it wasn’t easy with Danny and Morgan both watching her every move. Especially since she was kind of a wimp when it came to pain.

Ultimately her fear was what had been her undoing; her contractions were now advanced to the point where she could hardly get a full sentence out or move.

She was having this baby. Right now. Right here in Shulman & Associates.

“Danny, calm down,” Mindy pleads. “It doesn’t matter how we got to this point; what matters is that we are having a baby. We’re surrounded by a staff trained for this very thing!”

Morgan comes racing up with a wheelchair to help move her into one of the examining rooms. He’d offered to carry her, but Danny had firmly put his foot down on that one, much to Mindy’s relief.

“Don’t worry, Dr. C, I will take great care of your wife,” Morgan promises.

Mindy tries in vain to grab onto the hallway wall to stop the wheelchair. “Whoa, Morgan, you are not helping Danny deliver our baby!”

Danny’s objection drowns out whatever Morgan was about to say. “ _I’m_ delivering the baby?!”

As Mindy allows Morgan to carefully help her out of the wheelchair and onto an examining table, she rolls her eyes. “No, babe, I’m going to deliver her myself. Of course you’re going to do it! Who else would?”

And that’s how Jeremy is drafted to deliver the baby.

Mindy’s laying on her back waiting for Jeremy to scrub up and the lull in contractions is just long enough for her to hassle her husband. “Danny Castellano, I cannot believe you are going to let another man deliver our daughter! And one of my ex-lovers nonetheless!”

Danny hunches his shoulders forward, like he always does when someone mentions her and Jeremy’s past relationship. But he’s stubborn in his mindset that he cannot handle delivering their baby. “Min, I’m kind of…” He pauses, swallows hard. “… Kind of freaking the fuck out right now, I gotta tell you. We’re about to be parents, for real. How do I know how to be a dad? My old man bailed on us.”

She softens and takes his hand. “And you helped raised your brother, right? So there you go. You’ve already got some experie-” A contraction hits mid-word and she is trying not to scream, but Danny is taken off guard by the way she is grabbing his hand - actually grinding the bones together - that he makes noise enough for both of them. As soon as she can speak again, she is panting and laughing as he shakes his hand out. “Yeah, now imagine that happening on a bigger scale in your midsection,” she says.

He has no time to reply because Jeremy is now in the room - and so is Morgan. Mindy lets it go; she knows he’s invested in this whole situation and honestly by this point, she’s starting not to care about who is looking at her vagina as long as this baby comes out of her.

“Here we are, mommy and daddy,” Jeremy says with his charming smile. “About to witness the miracle of life.”

Both Danny and Mindy groan and Danny says, “Can it, Reed. We’re not your regular patients so we don’t need the full court press of bedside manner.”

Jeremy sniffs delicately and begins to get to business between Mindy’s legs. “Very well then. Let’s take a look.” He flips the edge of the blanket covering Mindy’s legs up and opens her thighs up wide. “Well, hello old friend,” he says - directly to her vagina.

Morgan laughs. “Oh, man, I totally forgot that you two used to bang! How weird is this?”

Danny growls low in his throat and Mindy touches his arm, a gentling pat to comfort him. “This is not weird, Morgan. I am just a patient and Jeremy is just my obstetrician.”

“Yeah, but if you think about it,” Morgan says, “this could have all been different if Dr. Reed had felt the same way about you that you did about him. It could be him as your husband and Dr. Castellano delivering your baby! How freaky is that?!”

Mindy takes a moment to digest that. “That is - okay, yes, putting it that way does kind of make this weird.”

The room is somber for a moment before another wave of pain crashes over Mindy and she groans, “Oh, God, oh, God, I don’t care if you have to line up every guy I’ve ever slept with to deliver this kid, just someone do it!”

Danny comes up by her shoulder and lets her curl into him, patting her back and rubbing her arm and telling her how strong she is. “I love you,” he’s saying softly, so only she can hear over her own moaning. “You’re so beautiful and I love you and I am so lucky that that English bastard couldn’t see what he had in you.”

It makes her laugh a little as her eyes well. Danny doesn’t show this side often - usually only when she’s sick or he accidentally deletes The Voice from the DVR.

“Okay, well that English bastard,” Jeremy says with a grimace of distaste, “thinks it may be time to push. Mindy, the next big contraction-“

“I am a doctor, Jeremy, I know what to do.” Mindy rolls her eyes at Danny, making him grin. “You just stand there and catch her when she comes out.”

“Guys, I just thought of something,” Morgan interjects. “What if this is like Twilight where the secondary love interest is actually destined for the heroine’s offspring-“

And just like that, Danny Castellano is her obstetrician. He shoves Jeremy out of the room, muttering the whole time about “grubby English hands” and “not touching my damn daughter” and “never ever dating ever”.

Mindy can feel a tightening in her uterus, warning of the next contraction, and gasps her husband’s name, making him raise his head briefly. “Promise me what you are about to see is _not_ going to affect our love life,” she pleads. “That after you see me squeeze a small human through my vagina that you will still find me sexy and desirable.”

He drops a kiss onto the inside of her knee and squeezes her calf. “After you give birth to our daughter, Min, you’re going to have to beat me off with a stick, that’s how hot I’ll find you.”

It comforts her enough to push through her contraction as Morgan helps support her.

Six weeks later, after she’s fully recovered from the delivery, she finds out just how accurate the vows he made that day are.

Both in terms of him still desiring her and not letting Jeremy touch the baby.


	4. The Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: I have to ask for a proposal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the Mindy Project or these characters. Please do not sue me Mindy Kaling or Fox.

It’s out of her mouth before she even recognizes the impulse.

On the couch, Danny stills, one hand slowly shutting off the TV. Without the light of the screen, his apartment is dark, prompting her to turn on a lamp.

He turns to her, eyes wary, and asks, “What?”

She firms her shoulders and her resolve and repeats, “I said, will you marry me?’

“Jesus, Min!” He’s up off the couch in a heartbeat. “What the hell?!”

Her heart sinks. “Is that… is that a no?” she asks, voice small.

“No! I mean… well, no! But give a guy a chance to get his bearings first.”

“Take your time,” she says lightly, grinning at his reaction now that he’s denied he’s turning her down.

He paces furiously for a minute. “You know, I coulda had plans for something like this!

“Did you?”

“I had- well, some- I had part of it,” he finally spits out.

“Danny!” Mindy throws her arms around him, then leans back to look him in the face. “Do you have a ring?” she demands.

“No,” he admits, then smirks. “Do you have one for me?”  
He chuckles at the shake of her head and slowly slides his arms around her waist. “What brought this on? Is it something you’ve been planning?”

She shakes her head again. “I was just sitting there, watching you watch that Civil War documentary and thought, ‘This is how I want to spend the rest of my life, hanging out with the man I love.’ And it just came out.”

His gaze softens and he drops a soft, lingering kiss on her lips. “Then, yes, Mindy, I will marry you.”

She returns his kiss with vigor then pulls back. “Dr. Daniel Lahiri. It has a nice ring to it.”

He grins against her mouth. “So does Dr. Mindy Castellano.”

“How about Lahiri-Castellano?” she counters.

“How about we table this discussion and spend the night celebrating instead?”

She topples him to the couch in agreement.


	5. you've got mail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: while watching You've Got Mail, Mindy notices Danny (Chris Messina). She doesn't tell him since she's convinced he's doing the whole 'double life' thing. She starts looking for similarities.

She’s seen this movie so many times that she often focuses on other tasks - answering texts, shopping online, pondering the meaning of life and all its mysteries - during the scenes where Joe and Kathleen are not interacting.

She only looks up because she could’ve sworn she heard Danny’s voice. But when she looks around, the lounge is empty. Baffled, she turns back to the movie as Kathleen starts to spell “Streatfeild” and then utters a very loud, “WHAT THE HELL?” when the camera pans back over to the incompetent Fox Books employee.

"Danny?!" she says out loud to the empty room.

She pauses the movie and jumps back a few frames and moves close enough to the screen that her nose is practically touching it. After hitting play, she stands there gaping. Although he doesn’t look exactly like Danny now - he’s more Danny-lite, practically pre-pubescent and almost amoeba-like in his youth - Mindy can clearly recognize her coworker.

All of the times he’s made fun of her for watching this movie and the hypocrite was in it the whole time!

She hears someone pass by the lounge and her first reaction is to turn the TV off. She’s not ready to confront him about this. Not yet. She needs to think first, to figure out how to proceed from here with this new information. She needs a strategy.

* * *

 

The next few days are agony for Mindy. Every fiber of her being screams for her to corner Danny and interrogate him. She can picture it perfectly and has spent the last few nights coming up with the perfect list of questions:

> 1\. What does Tom Hanks smell like?
> 
> 2\. What does Meg Ryan smell like? (smells are important, okay)
> 
> 3\. Does he know Tom Hanks and/or Meg Ryan’s home phone number or address?
> 
> 4\. Did he ever meet Nora Ephron?
> 
> 5\. Why is she just now finding out about this?!?!

She tries to drop random clues in to every conversation:

"You know, if I wasn’t a doctor, I’d probably be acting. What about you, Danny?"

"Don’t you just love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. How about you, Danny?"

"I know just how to handle the Deslauriers: we take ‘em to the mattresses. Do you know what that means, Danny?"

The last question had unfortunately led into Danny’s detailed break-down of The Godfather trilogy, much to Mindy’s dismay. She’s just glad she could escape before it dovetailed into his rant about Italian stereotypes.

So she had gotten precisely nowhere with her cautious and careful questioning.

Sitting at her desk now, Mindy wishes she had a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils that she could use to torture the truth out of Danny.

A knock on her door brings her out of her musings. “Hey, Min-” Danny starts pushing his way in, but Mindy doesn't let him finish.

"God, Danny! Just confess already! It’s driving me crazy!" She rises from her chair and closes the door behind him. "Tell me the truth."

His Adam’s apple visibly bobs in this throat and Mindy can smell the blood in the water. “The truth?” he asks, voice rising and nearly cracking. “I, uh… I don’t… what’ve you heard?” He’s visibly sweating now and Mindy begins to circle him.

"You know exactly what I mean, Castellano. I’ve been trying to get you to admit it out of your own guilty conscience all week and you’re like stone, man!"

He closes his eyes and inhales deeply. “Mindy,” he says quietly then falters. “I don’t know how you found out but, yes, it’s true. I do ha-“

"Ah-ha!" Mindy cries in victory. "I knew it. I knew it! There had to be a reason why you always whined about watching the best rom-com ever made and all along it was because you were in it!”

Danny’s eyes snap open then and his mouth opens and closes a bunch of times. “Wait… I… what?! You… oh, God,” he moans, dropping into one of her office chairs, face in his hands. “Oh, God. You finally realized it was me in the bookstore in You’ve Got Mail.”

Mindy blinks in confusion. “Um, yeah. Wait, isn’t that what you were just confessing to?”

"Yes!" he says quickly, standing back up. "Yes, yes, it was. Oh, man. You’ve got me. You figured it out. Yes, Mindy, in college, I helped pay some bills for medical school by doing extra work in movies and TV shows."

Mindy grabs onto his shoulders and shakes him once, sharply, and waits for him to look up at her. “Danny, are you telling me that you are in more movies?”

He grins, taking her hands from his person and holding them for a second. “How about you and I go grab lunch and you can ask me all the questions you want?”


	6. Gingerbread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny builds a gingerbread house with his daughters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So so so fluffy

Danny Castellano knows a thing or two about building gingerbread houses. The craftsmanship. The precision. The laser-like focus. The zen mindset. 

His wife likes to say that he is so obsessed with his creations because it helps him work out his unexpressed childhood frustration of being unable to hold a broken home together. Danny tries not to roll his eyes at her psychobabble too hard. He doesn’t always succeed. 

No, in reality, Danny just likes making beautiful things. 

He grins at one of his most beautiful creations yet, sitting across from him with her little brow furrowed as she tries to mimic his actions on her own piece of gingerbread. 

"How’s it coming, Abbey?" he asks, chuckling when she huffs in frustration, a mini-Mindy in so many ways. 

"Daddy, you do it!" she orders, but Danny shakes his head at the five-year-old. 

"No way, Abblesauce. Daddy’s got to finish his own part before Mommy’s party tonight." He tries to level a stern look her way. "You told me you wanted to help, so you need to finish it. Besides," he cajoles as she starts to pout, "think how much prettier my house will look with your door on it! And everyone from Mommy and Daddy’s work will be so impressed at what a big girl you are!"

Abbey thinks about that prospect for a moment, chewing her bottom lip, then looks up at him out of her mother’s dark sparkling eyes. “Even Morgan?” she asks hopefully. 

Danny hides a wince. He’s not sure what it is about their crazy nurse, but Abbey is obsessed with him and demands his presence every time there’s any kind of event at their place. “Yep,” he manages, “even Morgan.”

She grins up at him with her dark bangs falling into her eyes, the sight never failing to leave him elated and humbled, and says, “Alright.”

"Alright," Danny echoes with a grin of his own.

They work quietly for a bit, until the jangle of keys comes from the front door. “Mommy!” Abbey cries as Mindy walks through, purse slung over one shoulder as she balances their two-year-old on the opposite hip.

"Hi, Crababble! Are you helping Daddy a lot?" Mindy grins and drops her bag, moving Piper up to her shoulder. Danny is up in a flash to take the baby and kiss his wife hello. She smirks into his mouth as Danny picks up a hint of a cinnamon roll and gives her lip a soft bite.

"Yep!" Abbey answers. "Cause I’m a big girl. Right, Daddy?"

"That’s right." Danny takes his seat again with Piper in his lap. "And some day, Piper will help, too."

Abbey purses her mouth into a little rosebud. “I guess,” she allows reluctantly. She hasn’t taken to being a big sister very well, something that is entirely baffling to both him and Mindy.

Mindy walks up behind Abbey and starts to talk quietly to their daughter about the gingerbread door, oohing and aahing over it. Danny puts a little bit of frosting on Piper’s knuckles and watches her go nuts over it, chuckling at her impatient noises as she waits for him to give her more.

By the time they need to wrangle the kids into a bath and party clothes, the gingerbread house is barely complete, the door is lopsided, and there’s barely enough frosting decorating it. Frankly it’s a house that the Danny Castellano of six years ago would have been ashamed to show.

But looking at it that night, it makes Danny swell with pride, because that is the first gingerbread house he built with his family.


End file.
